We attended Freelance Camp San Francisco over the weekend. It was a great opportunity to see NextSpace Coworking's new SF facility (they were the hosts and organizers) while also interacting with and learning from a group of freelancers.
As researchers, camps are like a series of focus group sessions. In this case, we listened to freelancers discuss issues of importance to them, their problems and successes, and how they run their businesses.
As owners of a freelance-like business ourselves, we got to share business experiences, ideas and methods with a group of experienced solopreneurs.
All in all it was a great day.
It was interesting how much focus there was on networking. By my unofficial count, it was the 2nd most popular topic (finance and legal broadly defined came in 1st).
The interest in networking, not surprisingly, focused on 3 areas:
- finding customers
- finding other freelancers to work with on projects
- finding sources of feedback and input on work
Coworking and the community it provides is, obviously, one way to address these issues. And with the importance of networking only increasing, so will the appeal of coworking.
It was great having you there! Feel free to stop by again when its not quite so crazy.
- Rebecca (co-founder NextSpace SF)
Posted by: Nextspacesf | 06/07/2010 at 10:12 AM